#737 Max Crashes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

xtruss · 1 month

Text

What Has Happened to Boeing Since the 737 Max Crashes

— By Priyanka Boghani and Kaela Malig | March 13, 2024

A still from "Boeing's Fatal Flaw," a new FRONTLINE Documentary with The New York Times.

Five years ago, 346 people were killed in two crashes involving Boeing 737 Max planes within the span of almost five months: first off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018 and then in Ethiopia in March 2019.

Boeing’s Fatal Flaw, a 2021 FRONTLINE investigation with The New York Times, examined how commercial pressures, flawed design and failed oversight contributed to those devastating tragedies and a catastrophic crisis at one of the world’s most iconic industrial names.

In recent months, Boeing has come under renewed scrutiny after a door-like panel on a Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines blew off just a few minutes after takeoff in January 2024. An updated version of our documentary examines the impact of this latest crisis.

“This was supposed to be one of the most highly scrutinized planes in the world. And here you are with another incident that was risking passengers’ lives,” the Times’ Sydney Ember says in the updated documentary.

Here we take a brief look at what has happened to Boeing since the deadly 2018 and 2019 crashes and the recent Alaska Airlines incident.

Change in Leadership

Dennis Muilenburg had been CEO of Boeing since 2015. In the aftermath of the crashes, he testified before U.S. Senate and House Committees in October 2019, acknowledging the fatal accidents happened “on my watch” and saying he and the company were accountable. He told the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, “If we knew back then what we know now, we would have grounded [the 737 Max] right after the first accident.”

Two months after the congressional hearings, on Dec. 23, 2019, Muilenburg was fired by Boeing. The company described the move as “necessary to restore confidence” in Boeing “as it works to repair relationships with regulators, customers, and all other stakeholders.”

David Calhoun stepped into the role of CEO in January 2020 and continues to fill the position.

A $2.5 Billion DOJ Settlement and Challenges

On Jan. 7, 2021, the Department of Justice announced that Boeing would pay a $2.5 billion settlement, resolving a DOJ charge that the company had conspired to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aircraft Evaluation Group.

The DOJ’s criminal investigation focused on the actions of two employees who Boeing said in court documents “deceived the FAA AEG” about the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) onboard the 737 Max — a system the DOJ said “may have played a role” in both 737 Max crashes. The DOJ said the employees’ “deception” led to information about MCAS being left out of a key document released by the FAA, as well as airplane manuals and pilot-training materials.

As Boeing’s Fatal Flaw recounts, congressional investigators found internal documents showing that, after Boeing realized the impact MCAS would have on pilot training and FAA certification, some Boeing employees suggested removing all references to MCAS from training manuals.

“Boeing’s employees chose the path of profit over candor by concealing material information from the FAA concerning the operation of its 737 Max airplane and engaging in an effort to cover up their deception,” said David P. Burns, the acting assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s criminal division when the settlement was announced.

The company entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ, in which Boeing agreed to pay a nearly $244 million fine, to set up a $500-million fund for the families of people who died in the two crashes, and to pay $1.77 billion to airlines that had been affected by the 20-month grounding of the 737 Max that began in March 2019.

Boeing also agreed to continue cooperating with the DOJ’s Fraud Section on “any ongoing or future investigations and prosecutions” and is required to report any alleged violation of fraud laws by Boeing employees when dealing with foreign or domestic agencies, regulators or airline customers.

Boeing declined FRONTLINE’s request to be interviewed for the documentary. In a statement, the company said safety is its top priority and it has worked closely with regulators, investigators and stakeholders “to implement changes that ensure accidents like these never happen again.”

Former Boeing Pilot Found Not Guilty for Fraud

In October 2021, a federal grand jury criminally indicted Mark Forkner, Boeing’s Former Chief Technical Pilot for the 737 Max Airplane, on fraud charges. Forkner, who became the first and so far only individual to face criminal charges after the two fatal crashes, was accused of providing “materially false, inaccurate and incomplete information” to FAA regulators about flight-control software involved in the 2018 and 2019 crashes. Forkner was later found not guilty of all charges in federal court.

Forkner declined to be interviewed for the documentary, but his lawyer told the Times that his communications with the FAA were honest and that “he would never jeopardize the safety of other pilots or their passengers.”

Lawsuits by Families of Crash Victims

By November 2019, Boeing was facing more than 150 lawsuits filed by families of people who had died in the two crashes — over 50 of the suits stemming from the Indonesian crash and about 100 from the crash in Ethiopia, according to the Associated Press’ review of federal court records.

In July 2020, Boeing told a U.S. federal court that claims related to 171 of the 189 people killed in the Indonesia crash were either partially or fully settled, although the settlements were not publicly disclosed.

As of June 2023, cases related to 68 passengers from the Ethiopian Airlines crash were pending.

The Grounding and Return of the 737 Max 8 and Max 9

In the days after the second 737 Max crashed in March 2019, regulators around the world — from China to the European Union and several other countries — grounded the plane. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration followed suit on March 13, 2019, after initially saying the planes were safe to fly.

When the FAA retested and approved the 737 Max 8 and Max 9, ending the grounding in November 2020, it required airlines to take the following steps before putting the planes back into service: installing new flight-control-computer and display-system software; incorporating revised flight-crew procedures; rerouting wiring; completing a test of the “angle of attack” sensor system, which had contributed to both the 2018 and 2019 crashes; and performing an operational readiness flight.

The FAA, in conjunction with aviation agencies from Canada, Brazil and the European Union, also concluded that pilots operating the 737 Max would need to complete special training. It is not clear who would pay for this additional training, which reversed one of Boeing’s original sales pitches to airlines for the 737 Max: that the plane would require minimal pilot training.

A December 2020 Senate committee report criticized Boeing and the FAA’s handling of the 737 Max recertification testing, saying that, based on whistleblower information and testimony, it appeared Boeing and FAA officials had “established a pre-determined outcome,” and that Boeing officials “inappropriately coached” test pilots in the MCAS simulator. The report alleged, “It appears, in this instance, FAA and Boeing were attempting to cover up important information that may have contributed to the 737 MAX tragedies.”

The FAA responded at the time, saying: “Working closely with other international regulators, the FAA conducted a thorough and deliberate review of the 737 Max.” The agency added it was “confident” the issues that led to the two crashes had been “addressed through the design changes required and independently approved by the FAA and its partners.”

“We have learned many hard lessons” from the crashes, Boeing said in its own statement at the time. The company said it took the committee’s findings seriously and would continue to review the report in full.

Following the Senate report, families of the 2019 Ethiopian crash victims wrote to the FAA and the U.S. Department of Transportation in a letter dated Dec. 22, 2020, and reviewed by Reuters, asking for the 737 Max approval to be rescinded and for an investigation to “determine whether the MAX recertification process was tainted.”

A Brazilian airline was the first to fly a 737 Max after regulators there followed the FAA in ungrounding the plane. On Dec. 29, 2020 — a week after the families’ letter — the 737 Max flew paying passengers in America for the first time after nearly two years of being grounded. A month later, Europe’s aviation authority also gave the 737 Max clearance to fly.

On Aug. 26, 2021, India lifted its ban on the 737 Max after “closely” monitoring the plane’s performance elsewhere and noting “no untoward reporting.” China, which was the first country to ground Max jets after the deadly crashes, resumed commercial flights with the model in January 2023.

The 737 Max 10

On June 18, 2021, Boeing’s new model 737 Max 10 took to the skies for its first flight. The Max 10 is larger than the Max 8, which was involved in the 2018 and 2019 crashes, and the Max 9. According to Boeing’s technical specs, the Max 10 is 14 feet longer than the Max 8 and can seat a maximum of 230 people, compared to the Max 8’s capacity of 210.

At the time of the test flight, Boeing was already working on additional safety features in the Max 10 requested by European regulators, according to Reuters.

“We’re going to take our time on this certification,” Stan Deal, who became president and CEO of Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division in October 2019, said at the time of the Max 10’s first flight, according to The Seattle Times. “We’re committed to make further safety enhancements.”’

The FAA cleared the Max 10 to begin test flights, a step towards certification, last November.

Alaska Airlines Plane Incident

On January 5, an Alaska Airlines jet made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, after a portion of its fuselage blew out and left a door-sized hole in the side of the aircraft while it was around 16,000 feet in the sky. None of the 171 passengers and six crew members were seriously injured. The FAA temporarily grounded more than 170 Max 9 jets so they could be inspected.

In the aftermath, Boeing CEO David Calhoun has said, “Boeing is accountable for what happened.”

A Feb. 6 preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board said that the bolts meant to secure the door-like panel appeared to be missing before the flight.

Later the same month, the FAA released a long-awaited report that found that Boeing’s safety culture has been “inadequate” and “confusing.” The FAA gave Boeing 90 days to come up with a plan to address quality control issues.

The FAA conducted a six-week audit after the Alaska Airlines incident, and on March 4 said that it found Boeing had allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements.

Boeing now faces legal trouble in relation to the Jan. 5 event, including lawsuits filed by passengers and shareholders.

On Feb. 21, Boeing told employees that Ed Clark, who led the 737 program since 2021, would be replaced. The memo announcing Clark’s departure and other changes said the company was focused “on ensuring that every airplane we deliver meets or exceeds all quality and safety requirements.”

The Justice Department has also begun a criminal investigation into Boeing in the aftermath of the Alaska Airlines incident, as reported first by The Wall Street Journal.

“Cultural change doesn’t happen overnight, especially at big corporations like this,” David Gelles, one of the Times reporters featured in Boeing’s Fatal Flaw, says. “If Boeing wants to get back to that place of grandeur where it was for so long one of the most important American companies, it’s going to take not four years, but it might take 14.”

0 notes

rednblacksalamander · 1 month

Text

Golden parachute

#boeing #boeing whistleblower #capitalism #airplane #plane crash #737 max #political cartoon

14 notes · View notes

aero-strange1 · 1 year

Text

youtube

737max case study about the crash

#737max case study about the crash #boeing 737 max case study #boeing 737 max crash case study #what caused the 737 max to crash #boeing what caused the 737 max to crash #boeing 737 case study #case study of plane crash #air crash case study #plane crash case study #boeing 737 max case #case study of flight 370 #737 max crash explained #Youtube

0 notes

brightnshinythings · 1 year

Link

From 2019

#boeing #737 #max #8 #crash

0 notes

wilwheaton · 4 months

Quote

Boeing and its 737 are a textbook case. In October 2018 and March 2019, two crashes of an earlier version of the Max 737 killed 346 people, and grounded the planes for nearly two years. The disasters were ultimately traced to design failures in the model’s flight control software info that was not conveyed in its guidance to pilots, not to mention the Federal Aviation Administration, even though executives knew about it. Yet repercussions were almost nonexistent. A midlevel functionary charged criminally was acquitted by a jury in a matter of hours. It took the better part of a year — and two embarrassing days of congressional testimony — for Boeing to fire then-CEO Dennis Muhlenberg. The Trump administration ultimately decided to fine Boeing $2.5 billion for not informing the FAA about software changes that contributed to the fatal airline crashes, while deferring a criminal charge against the company. For Boeing, the fine effectively amounted to a business expense. The government even declared the company’s failure and misconduct “not pervasive,” a huge favor to a company facing massive lawsuits from victims’ families. Given this farcical excuse for accountability, it’s no surprise that the trouble didn’t stop for Boeing and the Max 737’s manufacturer, Spirit AeroSystems. The Lever reported Tuesday morning that a federal securities lawsuit filed last year against Spirit alleges “widespread and sustained quality failures,” including pressure on employees to downplay “defects.” And according to the Financial Times, last year Boeing itself flagged Spirit for improper installations and badly drilled holes on other 737s.

Boeing’s midair blowout is just a symptom of a much deeper rot

“For Boeing, the fine effectively amounted to a business expense.”

When I heard about this blowout on the 737, my first thought was, “this was caused by corporate greed and cutting corners, because Republicans have eviscerated accountability in corporate America.”

There is no satisfaction in learning that I am likely correct, just the grim knowledge that they’ll probably tighten some screws, but the rot at the core of the danger will be left untouched.

#boeing #boeing 737 #corporate greed #corporate crime

784 notes · View notes

bibbityboppitybillyharvgrove · 5 months

Text

Rambles - E.Munson

Summary - Eddie hosts a holiday party, Wayne not expecting 15 people to show up at their trailer. Although the trailer was filled with his friends, he spent most of the party outside with one of his closest friends, Y/N, sharing a joint.

Word Count - 737

Warnings - Female reader, Use of drugs(weed), use of Y/N

Author's Note - Welcome to day five! I'm still keeping up so hopefully I will be able to keep up for the next 20 days! We shall see!

my masterlist

25 days of fics masterlist

Feedback is welcomed and encouraged!

Enjoy!

not my gif

A year ago, Eddie would have thought he was crazy for spending the holidays with Steve Harrington and Y/N Y/L/N, but this year, it seemed perfectly normal. Wayne had allowed him to host a party in their trailer for his friends. The deal was just Eddie’s friends and nobody else. However, Wayne had vastly underestimated how many friends Eddie actually had. The trailer was packed with people, everyone from Hellfire, including Lucas, was there, Max, El, Nancy, Jonathan, Argyle, Robin, Steve, Y/N and Will. There were 16 people packed into the trailer like a bunch of sardines, when Wayne showed up, he was quite surprised with the amount of friends his nephew had accumulated over the last year.

Most of the older teens had taken over Eddie’s bedroom, the younger ones taking over the living room. Y/N and Eddie were sitting outside on the steps leading up to the front door, sharing a joint as they sat in a comfortable silence. She was the one to break it after a short while. “Wayne seemed surprised with how many people showed up,” She pointed out.

“He thought I was only inviting the Hellfire guys but I don’t think he realized how many people I’m actually friends with,” He replied, “It’s weird to think about really. I mean I had maybe 3 friends last year but this year there are 15 people at my trailer because they chose to be friends with me.”

“Who wouldn’t want to be friends with you? You are one of the best people I’ve had the joy of meeting. You’re like one of my favorite people ever, everyday with you is something new. Nothing is ever the same and I love that because it makes hanging out with you so much more fun because I never know what you’re gonna do,” She rambled, Eddie’s cheeks turning a bright pink color.

“You ramble when you smoke,” Eddie pointed out, “It’s cute.”

“Shut up.” She bumped her shoulder into his with a smile on her face. The two of them shared a laugh before talking about random things that popped into their minds. They sat out there for a few hours just talking and laughing, only going inside as the younger kids started to leave. The number of people in the house dwindling, Steve, Nancy and Robin all left, it was just Gareth, Jeff and Doug hanging out on the couch with Wayne.

Y/N was getting giggly because she had smoked a little too much. “She’s gonna crash here tonight, if that’s okay Uncle Wayne,” Eddie mentioned. Wayne gave him a noncommittal grunt. He took her hand and led her to his room, Gareth whistling at the pair and Jeff clapping which resulted in a middle finger from both of them.

This hadn’t been the first time she had stayed over with Eddie, she had stayed over so often that Wayne was just used to her staying. It’s not like Eddie brought girls over, the only girl that was ever at the trailer consistently was Y/N. As they got to his room, he handed her a pair of his boxers and a long sleeve shirt to wear for the night, taking out a pair of long flannel pajama pants. The two of them getting changed with their backs turned to each other before climbing into his bed and getting under the covers.

They laid beside each other, on their sides just looking at one another. She started to giggle again which made Eddie start chuckling. “What is so funny?” He asked between his laughter.

“I don’t know,” She giggled with glee. The two of them laughed for nearly 30 minutes before being able to calm down enough to talk. “You’re so handsome,” She said suddenly.

“You’re so beautiful,” He responded with a smile. She pressed her forehead to his as they looked into each other’s eyes. “Your eyes are so red.”

“So are yours.”

Both of them fell asleep not long after, their tiredness sneaking up on them. Wayne had checked on them before he had gone to bed, finding the two of them face to face and holding onto one another tightly. He had gently shut the door with a smile on his face, happy for his nephew even though the pair weren’t together just yet. He knew it wouldn’t be very long until the two got together.

#eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson x you #eddie stranger things #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson #eddie munson x fem!reader #corroded coffin #stranger things fic #wayne munson #stranger things #eddie st4 #steve harrington #gareth stranger things #gareth emerson #hellfire club #robin buckley #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #argyle

72 notes · View notes

identifying-planes-in-posts · 4 days

Note

ok so deep plane lore question boeing is in the current mess ultimately because of the 737, right? When should Boeing have committed to biting the bullet and replacing the 737 with a modern jet?

Probably around the time during the 737 MAX design process when they realized that the new high-bypass ratio CFM LEAP engines wouldn't fit underneath the wing and would have to be awkwardly positioned out front. The new engine positioning is what led to them implementing the MCAS, which is ultimately what caused the two famous crashes.

Or perhaps even earlier than that they should have just extended the life of the 757 instead of trying to morph what was originally almost a regional jet into the dachshund of a plane that is the 737-900ER.

32 notes · View notes

wireman-au · 9 months

Note

How's about you continue to the Waffle House and message Etho to meet you there or something. Best to be out of the open, and you can't stay here. Keep moving! You're doing great, keep it up!

"Good idea. We split the difference," you mutter. "We go to Waffle House. I contact Etho to meet us. That's... probably fine. We can't drive right now, but I think we can probably get a bus to Waffle House?"

Skizz sighs. "That doesn't solve the security cameras."

"We have him meet us outside of the Waffle House?"

"Yeah. Yeah dude, lets--my head's starting to hurt too. I don't know about you, Dippledop, but I'm crashing like a 737 max."

"Haha. Yeah. I feel that," you say. "Keep me awake on the bus. I'll keep you awake. We'll hold hands about it or something."

"I'll always hold your hand, bro."

You breathe in, and you point your feet resolutely at the bus stop that will take you into the part of town with the Waffle House. You still haven't heard any sirens yet. You aren't sure which direction the cops would come from, though. That doesn't mean anything.

"We're going to have to ditch my car. It's going to get towed," you realize. "I don't want to pay to get it back from being impounded. Do you know how much of a pain it is that my car will get impounded?"

"Man, you're right. At least I can help you get back and forth from wherever they tow it to."

"Thanks. Just--thanks, Skizz."

"It's no problem."

As you reach the bus, you find Etho's name in your contacts. Your last text conversation was three weeks ago; you went to see a movie together while he was in-town. He'd fallen asleep in the theater, and had been wildly embarrassed about it afterwards. Yeah, that's Etho, alright.

'Hey, man, is your place free to crash at? We're having some problems in my and Skizz's neighborhood,' you text. Simple. To-the-point. Maybe he's in-town, maybe he's not.

'yah key is under doormat,' Etho replies.

'You in town?'

'yah'

'Can you pick us up at Waffle House? My car's not an option.'

'sure give me 2 hours'

You huff a sigh of relief. Two hours to kill, and then no more questions asked. Maybe today will have all been a horrible nightmare after that. Maybe you'll get to take a shower and stay somewhere warm. No questions asked. That's good. No questions.

You have so many questions. You aren't asking them on a bus, and you aren't asking them in a Waffle House.

You and Skizz keep each other from falling asleep for the entire twenty-five minute bus ride.

#FILE #SUBJECT: impulse #unreality

78 notes · View notes

vomitdodger · 5 days

Text

In other news…Boeing 737s continue to fall apart in the sky.

The articles last paragraph is wrong though:

These are not “recent” incidents as the usual media collusion would have you believe with the 737 models. It officially started with two catastrophic crashes in 2018 and 2019:

Granted the 737 Max was the newest model and MOST nefarious but the pattern of intentional abhorrence to safety is manifest throughout Boeing for years if not over a decade as documented in the 2022 movie:

John Barnett who was recently arkancided plays a prominent role in the movie. The guy is brilliant.

And given todays constant barrage of distractions, psyops and coverups most didn’t hear of the latest Boeing whistleblower to testify to congress where he tells of retaliation and covert death threats after documenting the staggering safety violations. He even did this:

He also says he will not let his family fly ANY Boeing plane as the pattern of intentional recklessness is pervasive at Boeing. His testimony to congress was relentless in the violations. And given these problems took a decade or two to fully manifest the problems, it’s going to take a decade or more to address them. Especially since the lifespan of a typical airliner is 30 years.

Curiously, in 2021 the company Avelo was launched. So right about the time Boeing would have had to internally acknowledge they were facing a cosmic anal probe of investigations and it’s eventual consequences. Even if it’s the usual “whoopsie my bad” without any jail time or true consequences…because of the usual secret deals, payoffs and/or compromised investigators. Such as the current Boeing CEO stepping down by the end of the year.

Avelo is the latest in ultra low cost airlines. Basically Spirit but worse. Based out of the Carolinas where of course Boeing is based out of. Where Nikki Haley is based out of. Nikki Haley being a former Boeing CEO has never been question or commented on all of Boeing woes to the best of my knowledge. And she would have been there at the height of the violations. But the best part of Avelo…it’s an ALL Boeing airlines. Ha ha. Talk about your kickbacks and work arounds for pending investigatory anal probes!!! Hard pass on Avelo!

That’s it for now, until the next great and most certain Boeing disaster.

15 notes · View notes

ausetkmt · 3 months

Text

Yahoo News: Civil Rights Groups Horrified at Elon Musk's Racist Outburst Against Black People

Earlier this week, multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk endorsed a tweet suggesting Black students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have lower IQs and shouldn't become pilots.

"It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE," he tweeted, intentionally mixing up the letters of the acronym for "diversity, equity, and inclusion."

Civil rights groups were understandably horrified at the billionaire's racist comments.

"The only thing anyone needs to hear from Musk about diversity in the workplace is an apology," Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, told NBC News, calling his statements "abhorrent and pathetic."

In his tweets, Musk appeared to imply that HBCU students shouldn't be allowed to become pilots. However, neither his statement nor the tweet he was responding to stand up to virtually any degree of scrutiny, from made-up average IQ numbers to wrongfully correlating high SAT scores with high IQ.

Musk also claimed that a United Airlines program that allows students at three HBCUs to interview to become a pilot meant that the airline had "prioritized DEI hiring" over "safety," a demonstratively false statement that only further highlights his twisted worldview.

Even fellow billionaire Mark Cuban saw through the racist fearmongering.

"BTW, looks like multiple layers of merit-based evaluations before they can fly for United," Cuban tweeted, adding a link to the program.

In a schoolyard bully-esque response, a clearly incensed Musk called him "a liar" — without offering any evidence, of course.

In the CEO's mind, DEI initiatives seem to lead to mistakes like the door plug of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet falling out and forcing an emergency landing — a preposterous claim with no relationship to reality.

To be clear, Musk's latest hurtful remarks shouldn't come as much of a surprise, given previous comments and conspiracy theories he's already endorsed.

Musk's ventures also happen to have a well-documented problem with overt racism in the workplace, with swastikas and nooses found at Tesla, according to a lawsuit filed by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) last year.

"Musk’s company not only refused to investigate complaints or take any steps to end the abuse, it viciously retaliated against employees who complained or opposed the abuse," Morial told NBC.

It's a sad state of affairs, with Musk's racist tirades quickly becoming a common fixture on his social media platform X. Just over a month ago, Musk called an unhinged and antisemitic conspiracy theory "the actual truth," leading to an outpouring of criticism and condemnation.

His latest remarks are only adding to the pile.

"Reminder to Elon Musk: providing a home for the proliferation of hate speech and white supremacist conspiracy theories kills people," NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson wrote in response to one of Musk's tweets. "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion cultivates a more inclusive society."

"They are not the same," he added. "We are not the same."

Yet Musk is digging in his heels. In response to NBC's reporting, Musk lashed out once more.

"Those are openly racist organizations," he tweeted in a pitiful rebuke that will likely only stoke the flames.

More on Musk's overt racism: Elon Musk Cosigns Racist Claim That Black Students Have Low IQs

#Civil Rights Groups Horrified at Elon Musk's Racist Outburst Against Black People #elon musk #musty #dumb as a rock on mars #elon white savior musk #white supremacy #white hate #white ignorance #racists #Black Lives Matter #Black Learning Matters #Black Studies Matters #DEI #White Lies #White Liars

12 notes · View notes

the-time-lord-oracle · 7 months

Text

I was watching Thunderbirds' Terror in New York City this morning and it's uncanny how that episode predicted not one but two real-life events that occurred many years later. First, Thunderbird 2's altercation with the Sentinel predicted the fate of Iran Air flight 522 in 1988,and then the collapse of the Empire State Building predicted the destruction of the World Trade Centre in 2001. Perhaps not surprisingly, this episode was pulled from Boomerang's broadcasts of Thunderbirds in the wake of 9/11, but the phrase life intimidates art certainly rings true here. And it's not the only time Thunderbirds predicated real-life events years later; City of Fire predicted the Grenfell Tower disaster, The Mighty Atom predicted Chernobyl and Operation Crash-Dive predicted the 737 MAX scandal. I wonder if some of the writers were clairvoyant!

#thunderbirds 1965 #terror in new york city

21 notes · View notes

spacebabyu · 1 month

Text

a lot of yall are surprised about everything happening with Boeing but like….

do we not remember when they rolled out the 737 MAX 8s ? Boeing claimed no particularly new features were added to the plane (because they would have to retrain all of their pilots), but guess what ? That was false, and multiple planes went down because there were incidents involving the MCAS mid-flight that pilots weren’t trained on, so they couldn’t turn it off or even begin to be able to find where the issue was, they were looking for something they didn’t even know existed.

Boeing knew there would be accidents, but they also knew that paying out settlements from said accidents would take less money and time than retraining all of their pilots properly. Which womp womp, they had to do anyway, but not before flights Lion Air 610 and Ethiopian Airlines 302 went down (crashes that Boeing tried to blame on the pilots)

Before the merger, Boeing was definitely a “safety & engineering first” type of company. I’ve always loved the aviation industry, i’ve always been fascinated by planes but even more importantly, i live in the city in the USA where the most recent large loss of life crash happened (Buffalo NY, Colgan Air 3407). That event shook our entire community, my friend’s dad was unfortunately on that flight and lost his life with 49 others, along with one person on the ground.

the investigation was immediate, serious and thorough, and subsequent changes to the aviation industry were swiftly made and well thought-out and employed. i admired how well it was taken care of, and i’ve always seen (mid80s-2000s) aviation and its governing bodies (shoutout NTSB) as one of the most transparent industries that prided itself on being so.

Ironic that by killing their whistleblower Boeing put all eyes on them, i bet if they did nothing that the lawsuit wouldn’t have even made headlines.

RIP John Barnett, the brave Boeing whistleblower, and RIP all of those who lost their lives in aviation accidents

#aviation #planes #boeing #boeing whistleblower #john barnett #boeing 737 max #boeing 737 #plane #aviation industry

10 notes · View notes

usafphantom2 · 8 months

Text

In April 1962, the Blackbird flew for the very first time. This first Blackbird was actually not the SR-71 but its predecessor, the A-12. Eventually, three variants were created from the A-12. The first, named YF-21, was an interceptor plane armed with Air-to-Air missiles for the USAF. This program never went past its prototype stages into operation. The second variant, called M-21, was designed as a drone carrier. It had a pylon on the top where the drone was deployed from. But the program was also canceled after a drone crashed with the aircraft mid-flight, killing one pilot. The third variant was the SR-71, which stands for Strategic Reconnaissance. As opposed to the single-seater A-12, the SR-71 had two seats so that a Reconnaissance Systems Officer in the back could handle the navigation and camera equipment.

In contrast, the pilot in the front doesn’t have to worry about anything aside from flying. This was very crucial to reducing the heavy workload of the single pilot in the A-12. Additionally, the SR-71 also had more fuel capacity added. Now, we have a plane optimized for the US Air Force: the first SR-71 Blackbird took to the skies in December of 1964.

After the SR-71 entered service in 1966, it started breaking every. Single. Record. It was, and still is, the fastest jet in the world, with a cruising speed of Mach 3.3 and reports of pilots flying the Blackbird up to Mach 3.5. For comparison, commercial airliners like the Boeing 737 or Airbus A380 have top speeds of around Mach 0.8. The Concorde, the only supersonic commercial jet, had a top speed of Mach 2. Even the most advanced fighter jets today like the F-22 or the F-35, max out around Mach 2 as well.

Similarly, the SR-71 broke altitude records with its service ceiling at 85,000 ft. Again, for comparison, commercial airlines generally need to stay below 45,000 ft. The aircraft it replaced, the U-2, had an operational ceiling of 60,000 ft. Fighter aircraft today are also usually below 50,000 to 60,000 ft. Although to be fair, these aircraft have very different design goals than the SR-71 did back then.

I did not write this. This is a part of an article I found in the Medium written by Jenny Ma, a Seattle reporter. I loved the way that she wrote this article. I only had to change a few things. Thank you, Jenny.

The Blackbird's upper left is the MD-21 upper right is the SR- -71 B trainer lower right is the A-12, and lower left YF-12 in the middle of the SR 71A The speed and altitude charts credit Jenny Ma

Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via Twitter

12 notes · View notes